ECOVACS ROBOTICS recently announced that its GOAT G1 robotic lawn mower will be available in Australia from September 21st.
The company has taken their knowledge and experience in perception and navigation and applied it to the outside world of lawn mowing with the GOAT G1.
This robotic lawn mower offers new intelligent features that improves on what is currently on offer in the market of robotic lawn mowers.
One-click in-app boundary setting that trims 80% off time and effort.
One of the most time and labour-intensive tasks involved in robot mower set-up is boundary setting, which typically takes hours of physical effort, requiring manually digging and laying boundary wires around the desired area of lawn. GOAT G1’s app-enabled automated boundary setting changes this forever.
With the GOAT G1, electronic wire boundaries are replaced by ultra-wideband (UWB) signal beacons strategically placed around the edge of the lawn. This enables boundaries to be set within the app, improving the task’s efficiency by a staggering 80%.
In a 600㎡ garden, for example, only 2-4 beacons need to be installed before remotely driving the GOAT around the lawn edge via the app to set its boundaries. After this stress-free 20-minute process, the robot lawn mower will know never to stray outside of its designated mowing area.
Intelligent path planning and AI keeps lawns precisely manicured.
While its UWB beacons lay the groundwork for wire-free boundary setting, the GOAT G1 combines four different localisation technologies to ensure efficient path planning and precise operation in all scenarios.
ECOVACS’ solution is called its TrueMapping Multi-Fusion Localisation System. This combination of innovations incorporates Dual Cameras (Panoramic and Fisheye) that actualise new environmental information in real-time, UWB Technology that creates its local area communication network via beacons, an Industrial-Grade Gyroscope to ensure navigation stability in varied outdoor environments and High-Precision GPS Signal Transmission that achieves centimetre-level accuracy in positioning.
AI-based ground segmentation further distinguishes between lawn and non-lawn areas to ensure mowing right to the last blade of grass at the edge. If the GOAT G1 is low on battery during the process, it automatically navigates to the charging station and returns to where it left off for charging.
With all this, the GOAT G1 is able to mow a standard 600㎡ lawn in a single day, improving mowing efficiency by 2.5 times compared with other robotic lawnmowers.
This time improvement is based on internal testing of competitor products and laying of a physical boundary for a 600m2 sized lawn taking 99 min vs the GOAT G1 for the same sized lawn which completed a wireless boundary in 9.36 min.
Accurate obstacle avoidance ensures safety and smooth operation.
A common concern for consumers researching robotic lawn mowing is obstacle avoidance. The GOAT G1 addresses this with its unique AIVI 3D technology, a highly effective innovation seen in ECOVACS’ DEEBOT vacuum range.
AIVI-3D (Artificial Intelligence and Visual Interpretation Technology is powered by a 150-degree visual angle fisheye camera, and Time of Flight (ToF) Module that enable precise and broad-ranged visual recognition and strategic obstacle avoidance.
The robotic mower can easily avoid objects as small as 3-15 cm such as pets, hoses, and stones thanks to information from its 150-degree camera. For taller obstacles over 15 cm such as swing-sets and trees, the ToF sensor accurately estimates the distance and avoids them at a closer range to reduce untreated grass during mowing.
Smart garden-keeping capabilities for one-stop backyard security
As well as high-performance mowing, the GOAT G1’s onboard 360-degree camera also serves as a remote home security camera, sending real-time notifications directly to the user’s smartphone to ensure peace-of-mind for homeowners.
The GOAT G1 can be remotely sent to perform multi-spot guarding where it visits up to 10 guarding spots that can be added manually on the app. The panoramic camera provides a 360-degree view of the vicinity of the lawn mower with a wide range of viewpoints for static and dynamic human detection.
When users turn on the Human Detection feature on the app, the GOAT G1 will automatically capture and mark the location of the human figure on the map and send it to the user’s mobile app. In addition, the AI-based fisheye camera allows the user to zoom into the picture for a closer and more comprehensive view and take timely action.
Pricing and Availability
The ECOVACS GOAT G1 will be available from September 21, with a recommended retail price of A$2,999 from Australian retailers including JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Bing Lee, Robot Specialist, Bunnings (Online), Robot Lawn Mowers Australia (www.robotlawnmowers.com.au), Amazon & ECOVACS Online.